Office



(No Model.)

B. MACDONALD.

FIRE ESCAPE. No. 249,846. Patented Nov. 22,1881.

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RANALD MACDONALD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 249,846, dated November 22, 1881,

Application filed May 6, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, BANALD MACDONALD, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Fire-Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention comprises certain novel combinations of parts whereby a fire-escape ladder of great lightness and simplicity of construction is secured.

Figurel illustrates the manner in which my improved safety-ladder or fire-escape is applied to the window of a dwelling or other building. Fig. 2 is a front view and partial sectional view, showing the construction of the ladder. Fig. 3 is a sectional view, on a larger scale, illustrating the manner in which the rounds are attached to the sides of the ladder; and Fig. 4 is a sectional view, representing the bar or device by which the upper end of the ladder is held in due relation with the window when the apparatus is applied to use.

A is a ladder, the special construction of which is hereinafter presently explained, and the upper end of which, when the said ladder is applied to use, is attached by suitable hooks, a, to a cross-bar, B.

The bar B is made of the peculiar construction indicated in Fig. lthat is to say, of a piece of wroughtmetal pipe, in one'end of which is screwed a sharp spike, f, the general 'contour of which is indicated in said Fig. 4,

while in the opposite end is screwed a hammer, g, the handle of which is caused to pro- 5 ject internally into the interior of the pipe aforesaid.

When it is desired to fix the bar B in place,

the spike f may be removed and be used as asubstitute for a gimlet in making holes to receive the screws which may be necessary to fasten the bar B or its support in due relation with the window-frame, the hammer 9 being removable and capable of ready use for all the purposes of a hammer, either in operating the spike for for other uses which may be necessary in connection with the fixing of the bar B in place across the window, as hereinbefore indicated.

The ladder A has its rounds A composed of pieces of wrought-iron pipe, in the ends of which are transverse holes to form a passage therethrough for the wire-rope sides B. In the end of each of the rounds A is formed an internal screw-thread, and into each of said screw-threads is screwed a set-screw, O, in the inner end of which is a sharp conical stud or spur, n. The said spurs being crowded laterally inward into the sides B, and inasmuch as thelatter are formed of wire rope, the said spurs exerting a biting action in conjunction with the surfaces of the holes through which said sides are passed, it follows that the rounds A are securely fastened at the requisite intervals to the aforesaid sides, aflexible rope ladder of very great strength, lightness, cheapness, and durability being by this means secured for the purposes of my aforesaid invention.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. A metallic round for flexible ladders, provided with transverse holes near its threaded ends for the reception of flexible sides, and with set-screws for binding said sides to the rounds, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. The combination, in a flexible ladder, of the tubular rounds A, threaded at their ends, set-screws O, and flexible sides B, the parts being so arranged that the set-screws bind the flexible sides to and upon the rounds, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

3. The set-screw G, constructed with the spurs a, in combination with the rounds A, threaded internally at their ends, and the flexible sides B, passed through transverse openings in the rounds A, the parts being so arranged that the spurs a are projected into the flexible sides B, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

4. In a device for suspending a flexible ladder, the metallic crossbar B, having screwed in one end thereof the spike f, and in the other the hammer g, the handle of the latter projecting inward through the interior of the bar B, all substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

RANALD MACDONALD.

Witnesses THOMAS E. OnossMAN, J. E. FOLK. 

